Pioneer BDR-212UBK - Great Drive for Every Disk! Too Bad It Isn't UHD Friendly!

[Chris Kelly]

I posted this to Red Fox's ANYDVDHD forum. But since more of the firmware flasher developers seem to kind of reside here, I thought we might yield better results if I also post this here. Twelve days before this post, my LG BE16NU50 external USB drive quit reading FHD and UHD Blu-rays and was only reading DVDs and CDs. So I purchased the Pioneer BDR-212UBK ( https://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA ... BDR-212UBK[/url] ( https://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA ... BDR-212UBK ) because of its ripping and burning speed. Some people claim this drive is riplocked. However, once you download and install Pioneer's drive utility for changing and saving hardware settings ( https://pioneer.jp/cgi-bin/device/downl ... _setup.exe ), set it to performance mode, and turn off all the extra writing and reading processing, this is one hell of a burner and ripper for FHD Blu-rays and SD DVDs! I know it's the fastest I'VE used in years! However, upon discovering it's not UHD friendly, I also wound up purchasing an LG WH16NS40 SVC CODE NS50 which I flashed to firmware version 1.02 in order to rip my 4K/UHD Blu-rays. However, I think so highly of the Pioneer that I deeply regret it isn't UHD friendly. It would be awesome if enthusiasts could modify the official UHD Pioneer drives to make them UHD friendly while maintaining their high speed burning and ripping, whether via hardware (chip replacement) or firmware to flash!

[mike admin]

Pioneer drives in general, and specifically this model, will be supported in LibreDrive mode. This is just a question of time for now...

[Chris Kelly]

And when this drive gets libre-capible, would I have to flash it to LG or ASUS firmware? Or will Libre-capibility be obtained through modified Pioneer firmware? I really appreciate the features of the Pioneer firmware. So if it could be modified to add Libre-capibility, that would be awesome. Sorry for the tripple post. It just wasn't appearing until I did a search.

[st4evr]

However, keep in mind that this may not necessarily mean these features will be compatible with AnyDVD or magically unlock features while using their software.

Different software, different development, different features. In short, they do not have access to the development/features to develop against these types Official UHD drives like Mike does. Or for that matter, like other development teams like DeUHD do as well for example.

It is up to Redfox to figure that out for their software and add support for these drives for said software.

Additionally, Libredrive support does not immediately translate to UHD decryption support. Do not confuse the two. What Libredrive does and it's for has been very much detailed by Mike in the sticky post in this subforum. And the differences between UHD decryption support and Libredrive discussed to death within the walls of this forum.

However, Mike has mentioned that he is also aiming for UHD decryption support for these drives as well eventually. So, patience is required.

[st4evr]

And when this drive gets libre-capible, would I have to flash it to LG or ASUS firmware? Or will Libre-capibility be obtained through modified Pioneer firmware?

That’s not how that works. The LG and ASUS drives can be cross-flashed because they are practically the exact same drives manufactured by the same manufacturer, just sold under different brands. They slap the brand name label of whomever it will be sold under.

It is not necessarily the same with Pioneer drives and why it's taken so long for developers like Mike to get something working for those. Because they have to find a way to “hack” (so to speak) the firmware and/or find working loopholes in or around the firmware/protections specifically used by Pioneer for their drives to get the software to enable these features and/or allow decryption of AACS protections.

So, yes, eventually when that development is done, it will most likely use some of Pioneer’s existing firmware versions.

[Chris Kelly]

I would assume Mike is the creator of Make MKV. Are you saying Mike is more likely to get MakeMKV working with official UHD nonfriendly drives than Red Fox, Arosoft (DeUHD), etc.? I am hesitant to switch to MakeMKV because I like copying my disk's native file/folder structure to my laptop's SSD, and then having software such as CyberLink, VLC, etc. play from there. Doesn't MakeMKV change my disk into a media file, compress it, etc.?

[Billycar11]

I would assume Mike is the creator of Make MKV. Are you saying Mike is more likely to get MakeMKV working with official UHD nonfriendly drives than Red Fox, Arosoft (DeUHD), etc.? I am hesitant to switch to MakeMKV because I like copying my disk's native file/folder structure to my laptop's SSD, and then having software such as CyberLink, VLC, etc. play from there. Doesn't MakeMKV change my disk into a media file, compress it, etc.?

It already works with some official UHD drives like WH16NS60 and BU40N and you can do a folder backup to keep the native disk file structure. But I don't think powerdvd works with it for UHDs properly you just get black screen or wrong playback time and stuff like that and it still detects it's a uhd and requires sgx even though it shouldn't but I think it does work if you make in into an mkv

[st4evr]

I would assume Mike is the creator of Make MKV.

Yes, Mike is the owner/developer of MakeMKV.

Are you saying Mike is more likely to get MakeMKV working with official UHD nonfriendly drives than Red Fox, Arosoft (DeUHD), etc.?

Yes, because MakeMKV already works with several official UHD drives. They have been supported under MakeMKV for several months already and Mike has tools under his belt that allow him to achieve this.

Also, DeUHD also works with several official UHD drives. Redfox is not the only option/developer out there making this kind of software/development. This stuff doesn’t revolve around Redfox, so simply because they don’t have these functions/features, does not mean they don’t exist or are not possible.

I am hesitant to switch to MakeMKV because I like copying my disk's native file/folder structure to my laptop's SSD, and then having software such as CyberLink, VLC, etc. play from there. Doesn't MakeMKV change my disk into a media file, compress it, etc.?

Unsure where you got that idea, but again, that's not how this works entirely. MakeMKV is not a transcoder/encoder a.k.a “compresses” audio/video quality. Yes, MakeMKV can create an MKV (Matroska file container) file from discs/backups, but also a full folder structure backup of discs and both options are fully lossless (uncompressed quality of audio or video). Just like the ones you say you use.

[Chris Kelly]

While I can see color and light, I am unable to read print and depend on speech output to navigate. At some point, I guess I'll give MakeMKV a try. But for now, I just want to make sure I understand the status quo correctly. MakeMKV still doesn't rip 4K/UHD Blu-rays using this Pioneer drive. So in the mean time, I'll stick with my LG WH16NS40 for ripping 4K/UHD Blu-rays, and use this Pioneer for ripping the rest of my disks.

[mike admin]

But for now, I just want to make sure I understand the status quo correctly. MakeMKV still doesn't rip 4K/UHD Blu-rays using this Pioneer drive.

No software in the world (MakeMKV included) can rip UHD content from this drive. MakeMKV (specifically LibreDrive library) should support this drive relatively soon. No firmware update would be required.

[nco2k]

MakeMKV (specifically LibreDrive library) should support this drive relatively soon.

thats great news! what about the 212EBK? i dont think the 212UBK is available in europe. are there any hardware differences between the two drives, or is it just the firmware?

[Blackened2687]

All BDR-212/S12 models use same hardware platform. One possible exception could be for BDR-212BK/212DBK drives which don't support BDXL media.

Note that European/Taiwanese BDR-212EBK doesn't support UHD, it has the same firmware as American BDR-212ULBK (sold as BDR-2212). The equivalent of American BDR-212UBK with UHD support is Japanese BDR-212JBK (both of them share same firmware).

If you want to buy UHD-compatible Pioneer drive in Europe, look for BDR-S12UHT. I've seen it in some German online stores.

[Qjimbo]

I got a decent deal on the Pioneer BDR-211UBK UHD Blu ray drive, the predecessor to the 212UBK. Currently has the 1.51 firmware on it. I discovered that MakeMKV was unable to rip my UHD discs for my Media Server and then came across the many threads on this forum that Pioneer drives are not supported. This one seems the most relevant though.

I did some digging and found that two versions of the firmware are on Pioneer's website:
v1.51 https://pioneer.jp/device_e/product-e/i ... W151EU.exe
v1.52 https://pioneer.jp/device_e/product-e/i ... W152EU.exe
(located from https://pioneer.jp/device_e/product-e/i ... 01r_e.html)

Each of these firmwares are self-extracting RAR files. They each contain the following when extracting with 7zip.
8800*.EXE <- Firmware updater program 1
8801*.EXE <- Firmware updater program 2
bd11_launcher.exe <- Firmware update launcher, this seems to look for the drive, then runs the update. The 1.51 does this without prompting, warning or any feedback, where as the 1.52 asks the user if they want to update first, and also displays an error if the drive isn't found.

I'm still doing a bit of research into this, each EXE seems to be a packed Setup file. Not sure this is any help to making progress of LibreDrive support, if there's any way I can help through beta testing etc., please let me know.

[Billycar11]

I got a decent deal on the Pioneer BDR-211UBK UHD Blu ray drive, the predecessor to the 212UBK. Currently has the 1.51 firmware on it. I discovered that MakeMKV was unable to rip my UHD discs for my Media Server and then came across the many threads on this forum that Pioneer drives are not supported. This one seems the most relevant though.

I did some digging and found that two versions of the firmware are on Pioneer's website:
v1.51 https://pioneer.jp/device_e/product-e/i ... W151EU.exe
v1.52 https://pioneer.jp/device_e/product-e/i ... W152EU.exe
(located from https://pioneer.jp/device_e/product-e/i ... 01r_e.html)

Each of these firmwares are self-extracting RAR files. They each contain the following when extracting with 7zip.
8800*.EXE <- Firmware updater program 1
8801*.EXE <- Firmware updater program 2
bd11_launcher.exe <- Firmware update launcher, this seems to look for the drive, then runs the update. The 1.51 does this without prompting, warning or any feedback, where as the 1.52 asks the user if they want to update first, and also displays an error if the drive isn't found.

I'm still doing a bit of research into this, each EXE seems to be a packed Setup file. Not sure this is any help to making progress of LibreDrive support, if there's any way I can help through beta testing etc., please let me know.

me marty and others too have already sent the firmware in from the drives themselves.

[Qjimbo]

I got a decent deal on the Pioneer BDR-211UBK UHD Blu ray drive, the predecessor to the 212UBK. Currently has the 1.51 firmware on it. I discovered that MakeMKV was unable to rip my UHD discs for my Media Server and then came across the many threads on this forum that Pioneer drives are not supported. This one seems the most relevant though.

I did some digging and found that two versions of the firmware are on Pioneer's website:
v1.51 https://pioneer.jp/device_e/product-e/i ... W151EU.exe
v1.52 https://pioneer.jp/device_e/product-e/i ... W152EU.exe
(located from https://pioneer.jp/device_e/product-e/i ... 01r_e.html)

Each of these firmwares are self-extracting RAR files. They each contain the following when extracting with 7zip.
8800*.EXE <- Firmware updater program 1
8801*.EXE <- Firmware updater program 2
bd11_launcher.exe <- Firmware update launcher, this seems to look for the drive, then runs the update. The 1.51 does this without prompting, warning or any feedback, where as the 1.52 asks the user if they want to update first, and also displays an error if the drive isn't found.

I'm still doing a bit of research into this, each EXE seems to be a packed Setup file. Not sure this is any help to making progress of LibreDrive support, if there's any way I can help through beta testing etc., please let me know.

me marty and others too have already sent the firmware in from the drives themselves.

Nice, would you be able to PM me a download link as well? How were you able to pull it off of the drive? Did you figure out the architecture the binaries are for? Would like to have a poke around in Ghidra.

Either way, add me to the list of people clamoring for UHD support for this drive